St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-09-06
MANY SCORES KILLED
Frightful Panic in a Thea
ter at Exeter, England,
Last Night.
A Flight for Life in Which
People Are Literally
Cpemated.
English Liberals Disappointed
at the Tame Submission
of the Irish
To the Mandates Of the Po-
lice on the Hill of
Ballycoree.
By Cable to the Clone.

By Cable to the Clone.
LONDON. Sept. 5.-During the per-
Torrance of The Romany Rye in the
theater at Exeter this evening the build
audience became panic stricken and
made frantic rush for the exits in
spite of the heroic efforts of the attaches
to reaSSure and induce them to go out
quietly. The occupants of the pit en-
gagged in an awful rush for egreSs in the
narrow aisles. Men and women were
upon by those behind them, and hun
dre&s of persons We're almost entirely
denuded in the terrible fight for life.
The pit was finally cleared, but a large
numbers of the occupants of that por-
ton of the house were seriously injured
and presented
A HORRIBLE SPECTACLE
as they reached the streets. The occu-
pants of the gallery did not fare so
well. There was only one very narrow
exit from the upper tier involving the
descent of a rather long flight of stairs,
and here an almost Undesirable scene
of terror and slaughter ensued. The
rush for the stairs was terrific, and in
moment the entire passageway was
blocked, those persons who kept their
feet being supported by solid pack of
PROSTATE humanity. The shrieks, groans
and curses of the imprisoned and the
trampled. the wounded and dying, were
perfectly heartrending, but there was
no relief, and in a moment scores of
men and women were either
SUFFoCATED TO DEATH,
or killed by being trodden upon. A fire
escape was at last brought to one of the
gallery windows and through this me-
dunn the pressure was relieved and
great many persons were lowered to the
street. As soon as the house had been
cleared of the living the work of re-
moving the dead was begun and sixty
bodies were taken out by means of the
fire escape. The wounded survivors
were conveyed to the hospital and their
number cannot at this time be definitely
ascertained, but it is very large. The
total number Of lives lost is estimated at
100, but may exceed that figure.
THE FIRE STARTED
in the flies during the fourth act of the
play. When the flames were discovered
drop scene was lowered to prevent the
current of air from increasing the blaze.
After this was done the actors and stage
escape when the draft caused the flames
to burst through to the drop scene and
ignite the wood work of the gallery.
The flames overlook the hindmOSt of the
unfortunate people who were wedged
in the corridor and stairway, and liter
ally roasted them alive. There was no
escape for them, the fire being at their
backs and compact immOyable mass
of human beings in front. The firemen
reached the upper windows and took
out all of the people they could find, but
MOST OF THEM WE'RE DEAD,
and many others died soon after they
were taken out. The surgeons in the
hospitals revived a few persons who
were thought to be dead from suffoca-
ton, but at o'clock i'll the morning
nearly 100 corpSeS laid in rows on the
floor, and these did not comprise the to-
tai number of the dead, as great many
bodies were burned to ashes in the the
alter. Some of the dead were simply
suffocated, and not at all mutilated or
burned. The occupants of the dress
circle escaped without injury, the in
jured and dead being confined to the
pit and the upper circles. The build
ing was destroyed. One hundred and
thirty bodies have been taken out of the
theater thus far. OF these 100 are men
and boys and thirty women. A score or
more of the injured were taken to the
hospital and large number were taken
to their homes.
A telegram from Exeter at O'Clock
this tuesday morning says that the
fire is under control. Only the walls of
the structure are standing. People dis
tracted with anxiety are standing about
the streets in the neighborhood of the
theater in search of friends who at
tended last nights performance.
The hospitals are beseiged by anxious
inquirers for friends. Twenty badly
burned persons who were admitted to
hospitals died few moments after they
were received. The structure burned
WAS the Theatre Royal. 1t was built
after the latest designs, and was elabor-
ately fitted, being considered one of the
prettiest in the kingdom.
THEY LACKED SAND"
What English Liberals Think of